Hiller or Nabokov

[tripel]

yes, i was joking...Hiller is still by far the top pick here ....dont think the risk is high that his illness will be season or career threatening

Nabby is intriguing, only becasue his numbers were so good in SJ and he's not that old. I don't put any stock in the KHL performance, and wouldnt be surprised if he emerged to be a top 10 keeper again. But I agree that it probably wont be for the Isles...

I have Luongo and Brodeur in front of Nabby, so wont be able to keep him, and wont get any trade value either ...too bad

[bernjean]

In a keep 5, with Luongo already as a starter goalie, you have to do the deal for Hiller.

[leaftodd]

I currently have Hiller and he will be a keeper for me. There is strong demand and could move him for a first round pick in our up-coming draft.

I also have an offer on the table to acquire Nabokov for a 6th maybe 7th round pick.

Thoughts on these 2 deals?

You keep LU Perry Carter Yandle and Backstrom.

You deal Hiller for the first. You ignore buying Nabakov because you cant keep him.

And at the end of the day you're set.

[starglider]

Shoeless and others have laid it out correctly.

It's not as simple as "is Hiller keeper quality". The question here is what's worth more, Hiller or Yandle and a 1st round pick. And a 1st round pick in a league with 70 keepers is very strong. I think you absolutely have to do this deal unless you think there will be a serious scarcity of goalies available to re-draft.

[keytolife]

I´m on the Yandle + 1st page here. Hiller might or might not rebound he is a great goalie but his vertigo would scare me to go the safe route with yandle here.

[mister_mcgoo]

Am I reading a different thread from a few of you? Yes, Hiller is of keeper quality here, no - he should not keep Hiller over trading him for that first round pick. Please look at all the parameters of this league and team and explain to me how Hiller can even come close to providing the same value that the trade will provide this guy. What am I missing??

simple, its a limited keeper and 30% of his scoring categories are dedicated to the production of 2 players. If you've got two of the absolute best in the game filling those slots you're going to win those cats the bulk of the time in a H2H format.

Yandle is a quality d-man to be sure but his league doesn't award d-men any special value. His league counts Hits but Yandle is a positional d-man not a bruiser, he's not going to get you anything in that category...in fact none of your d-men are going to get you much in the way of Hits so I wouldn't keep any of them and I'd be looking to draft Weber, Robidas, Letang, Chara, Seidenberg, Burns etc. Last year the difference between the #5 d-man and the #28 in scoring was only 11 pts, that's not the kind of difference that's going to win you a league, better to choose versatile d-men that get you multi-cats, that's how you'll get the most bang for your buck on D. Beyond that, you have no other forwards I'd keep over Hiller so it comes down to whether Hiller is more valuable than a 71st to 84th pick and the answer to that question is a resounding 'hell yes!'

[Pens71]

Hiller is too much of a question mark to use a keeper spot on.

Hiller is amazing, definitely worth a keeper spot

[Hawerchuks]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Goalies are expected to be scarce come the draft with most teams trying to keep 2 goalies. The starting goalies that are expected to be available will be - Pavelec, Theodore, Varlmonov, Anderson, Montoya/Dipietro, Dubnyk/Khabibulin.

Not a very deep pool of potential goalies.

[ross10019]

Not sure Hiller will ever be the same, Swiss cheese btw the ears.
I'd take Nabokov. Also, Roloson is old and spent and the Rangers are overrated. In general, Maulers blow.
Sorry, what was the Q?

Ogres swallow.

Hiller finishes 2nd to Lundqvist in the Vezina race!

Luongo loses the starting gig to the Schneider kid by November.

Congrats on the home purchase!

[tripel]

Ogres swallow.

Hiller finishes 2nd to Lundqvist in the Vezina race!

Luongo loses the starting gig to the Schneider kid by November.

Congrats on the home purchase!

thanks!

and if by swallow, you mean swallow the championship and all the glory to be had, leaving nothing but misery for the woeful hopefuls, then yes.. yes they do...

[ross10019]

thanks!

and if by swallow, you mean swallow the championship and all the glory to be had, leaving nothing but misery for the woeful hopefuls, then yes.. yes they do...

No, I meant swallow the semen produced by giant hairy moose testicles.

BTW, real shocker you predicting the Canucks to win the Cup in your 2011/12 fearless forecasts!

[tripel]

No, I meant swallow the semen produced by giant hairy moose testicles.

BTW, real shocker you predicting the Canucks to win the Cup in your 2011/12 fearless forecasts!

i know, it's hardly a stretch
you have them too?

[ross10019]

i know, it's hardly a stretch
you have them too?

All kidding aside, it's going to be tough for the Canucks to win it this year. They had a long difficult road last year and not much rest before the season starts, and they'll have Kesler and Raymond missing training camp and shelved for a good stretch of the regular season, which often means they just never catch up (although I wouldn't put it past Kesler to come out of it as solid as ever). The loss of Ehrhoff I think will hurt them on the PP more than people think. Plus you've got two teams, SJ and LA, that are considerably stronger this year, along with the Wings and Hawks that'll be a tall task to get past those teams.

That said, they still have a great squad and if a guy like Ballard bounces back and if they can snag a great player in a trade (e.g., for Schneider), they could certainly find themselves back in the show in June.

[tripel]

All kidding aside, it's going to be tough for the Canucks to win it this year. They had a long difficult road last year and not much rest before the season starts, and they'll have Kesler and Raymond missing training camp and shelved for a good stretch of the regular season, which often means they just never catch up (although I wouldn't put it past Kesler to come out of it as solid as ever). The loss of Ehrhoff I think will hurt them on the PP more than people think. Plus you've got two teams, SJ and LA, that are considerably stronger this year, along with the Wings and Hawks that'll be a tall task to get past those teams.

That said, they still have a great squad and if a guy like Ballard bounces back and if they can snag a great player in a trade (e.g., for Schneider), they could certainly find themselves back in the show in June.

They have a lot of wiggle room for a top 3 finish with how lousy the division is. They could drop 15 pts in the standings and still finish 3rd, so not too worried about a slow start due to Kesler, etc recovery time.

That said, I don't see them that worse off for a couple reasons --

Erhoff was the big loss on the blueline, no doubt, but Ballard and growth from Edler & Tanev should offset to some extent. The O will be hurt a bit, but Erhoff was not exactly know as a stalwart on the defensive side. While perhaps missing that A-level guy, they still have depth with 8 NHL calibre blueliners (and many project Edler to take that step to elite this season..)

Other than him, Torres was the only significant piece to leave (not incl Glass, Rypien (RIP), etc..) On the other hand, you have Sturm coming in, who is a low-risk option for some extra scoring, plus a full season of Higgins & Lapierre, and hopefully Samuelsson as well.

Then there's Hodgson, who remains a huge wildcard. If he performs to his abilities that could be a whole new dimension for them -- and he'll likely be given a big shot to start with Kesler out.

Here's the starting lineup, with no Raymond to start --

FORWARDS
Daniel Sedin ($6.100m) / Henrik Sedin ($6.100m) / Alexandre Burrows ($2.000m)
Cody Hodgson ($1.666m) / Ryan Kesler ($5.000m) / Mikael Samuelsson ($2.500m)
Marco Sturm ($2.250m) / Manny Malhotra ($2.500m) / Chris Higgins ($1.900m)
Jannik Hansen ($1.350m) / Maxim Lapierre ($1.000m) / Mike Mancari ($0.525m)
Byron Bitz ($0.700m) / Mike Duco ($0.550m)

DEFENSEMEN
Kevin Bieksa ($4.600m) / Dan Hamhuis ($4.500m)
Sami Salo ($2.000m) / Alexander Edler ($3.250m)
Keith Ballard ($4.200m) / Chris Tanev ($0.900m)
Aaron Rome ($0.750m) / Andrew Alberts ($1.225m)

GOALTENDERS
Roberto Luongo ($5.333m) / Cory Schneider ($0.900m)

CARRY-OVER BONUS PENALTY: $15,000

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $61,864,999; BONUSES: $850,000
CAP SPACE (24-man roster): $2,485,001

At the very least, they're close to last year's squad ... close enough anyway that it would take a disaster not to win the division (knocks on wood.) And they have very big potential upside with that 2.5M in cap space, which can be deployed to get SERIOUS help at the deadline. A guy like Doan would cost only a mil or so at the deadline, Weber under 2M.

I am thrilled at Gillis' performance this offseason -- locked up the core guys and stayed away from the UFA insanity of multi-year big-dollar deals for questionable guys like Ward, Flash, Leino (and I group Cole in there too.)

The nice thing is that next year only Samuelsson, Sturm and Salo are significant UFAs, then the year after that, it's only Burrows from the core (but also Malhotra, Higgins, Lapierre, Alberts.) Gillis has done a fantastic job of going long term with the most important guys, mid term with the 2nd tier guys, and short with the interchangable parts.

So they should stay competitive and be able to take significant runs at Stanley for at least the next 2 years, and likely all 3 of the Sedins' current contract. Hope springs eternal, which is a good thing, considering the still fresh bruises of this past June...